Actually I've hiked for 20 years in Maine and back country camped. 1) you carry a compass. 2) failing that, you know how to do orienteering. You use orienteering to establish landmarks and move in a straight line using "points of three". I also took a survival class in the woods in VA. Seems to me anyone who is going to hike the AT, especially alone, should have at least one of these skills.

Sad but grossly unprepared.

It said she was 20 minutes from a logging road and she had a compass. She had DAYS to run some transects to try to find the trail again. I still don't get why she just hunkered down and hoped to be found. I would pick one direction and walk until I collapsed.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how you get lost and can't get found on the Appalachian trail. It's not that wide. If you walked in a straight line for days, you'd have to hit something. Right?

The Appalachian trail runs into great stretches of wilderness. Once you're off the trail, you can die in a few days.
Also, hypothermia is an important risk when hiking, and impairs judgement to the point where one can make irrational and fatal decisions (such as getting off the trail, stripping off your clothes, plunging into a lake).
And you can't walk straight. There is dense undergrowth, brush, and hilly terrain. You think you're walking straight, but you aren't.

You haven't truly hiked before, have you?

It's a tragic, sad story. But yeah, not really brave or heroic.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how you get lost and can't get found on the Appalachian trail. It's not that wide. If you walked in a straight line for days, you'd have to hit something. Right?

When you have no bearings and are lost in thick woods of Maine, how do you "walk in straight line"?

She was too old and stupid.

At least she got one scratched off her bucket list.

Why are you calling her brave? It sounds a little irresponsible to go camping by yourself.

Anonymous wrote:link is as dead

Sorry!! please try this:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/missing-appalachian-trail-hiker-found-141119029.html

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand how you get lost and can't get found on the Appalachian trail. It's not that wide. If you walked in a straight line for days, you'd have to hit something. Right?

I thought so too until I realized she was in a remote part of Maine.

I don't understand how you get lost and can't get found on the Appalachian trail. It's not that wide. If you walked in a straight line for days, you'd have to hit something. Right?

Anonymous wrote:This is so sad to read! This poor woman!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/missing-hiker-found-dead-last-year-kept-journal-of-ordeal

Just sends shivers down my spine to read of her ordeal & thinking of what must have been going through her mind towards the end. Horrible to have to end your life scared, lost, and alone. She was a brave, true, hero.

Please don't use the word hero so casually. She got lost and died, and it's tragic, but it doesn't make her a hero.

I saw that.
I still don't understand the desire to hike alone, knowing there are so many risks.

link is as dead

This is so sad to read! This poor woman!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/missing-hiker-found-dead-last-year-kept-journal-of-ordeal

Just sends shivers down my spine to read of her ordeal & thinking of what must have been going through her mind towards the end. Horrible to have to end your life scared, lost, and alone. She was a brave, true, hero.